Tuesday, March 23, 2010

The Sun Card

My Facebook tarot card reading tells me that good things lie ahead. I took a simple multiple choice quiz, and I drew the Sun Card. "Many Good fortunes will soon come to pass in the form of Good Health, Material happiness, and Achievement. There is Joy and happiness in your future."

Say what you will about the accuracy and authenticity of Facebook quizzes, but I am choosing to believe every word. Because, you see, I am on a mission for change. No, not the change Obama promised (though I am looking forward to more of that as well), but a change of my own making. I proclaim that I will heretofore Whine Less and Work More.

What has brought about this resolve? Well, a couple of days ago, I competed in a fun trial. But I didn't have very much fun. Taz and I didn't do very well. There are lots of reasons, but I think the main one was that I have lately been working on loosening Taz up and letting him regain some of the natural ability I've taken out of him with my crappy timing and unique handling style involving nagging/letting him ignore me for a while/until I freak out and overcorrect him and then he freaks out. So I've been trying to let him make more decisions, work things out on his own, do things the way he wants unless he is making poor decisions. Commanding him only when he is making mistakes. This seems simple to do, but it has been surprisingly hard for me to carry out. I tend to either overcommand or let him get away with murder.

And this is what happened at the trial. I was in a stressed-out and pissy mood that morning anyway, and I told myself the one thing I'd do during our run was to keep my cool. No screeching. But I took that strategy too far and didn't really handle poor Taz much at all. His outrun was unexpectedly tight and flat. It hasn't been bad in practice lately (though I'll admit it hasn't been stellar either). I should have taken advantage of this being only a fun trial to "manually" widen him out and remind him that just because he is running in a trial did not mean he could get away with substandard work. But I gave him a mild "get out of that" correction, which he took, before he then sliced in hard at the top. And things went downhill from there. He didn't have a wild run, he just was off line the entire time, and I was uninspired in helping him get the sheep back on line. In an effort not to overhandle him, I might as well have run the course silently for all the direction I gave him.

Not on the same page...

After sulking about my crappy handling skills for a little while, I decided I need to either commit to doing this or accept that it will take me about 42 more years to hope to compete at the open level. I think at least part of the reason I struggle and seem to do so much moving up and down the ladder of understanding how to handle my dog is because I simply do not work my dog enough to effectively build on what we learn. It's true that I am at a disadvantage for not having my own sheep to practice with. It's true that I have a full-time job and must supplement my meager income with a lot of freelance work, so I don't have very much time. It's true that blah blah blah. Excuses I have. More time spent working my dog I need.

Fewer excuses. More time working the woolies!

So I have made a promise to myself that I will work my dog at least three times a week for the next seven weeks (basically until trial season starts here). In the grand scheme, it's not really a long time period, so this should be doable. It won't always be easy to schedule this time with the sheep—especially as I typically do a couple of hours of freelance work in the mornings before going to my day job, but I will change my work habits to complete this freelance work in the evenings before bed instead. I predict I will struggle keeping to this schedule at times. But I feel like three times a week is the minimum I can work Taz and expect to progress. And it's not forever. If I can do this, I can reassess how often I need to train once the trials begin based on how far (if anywhere) we've come.

This all sounds like a good plan! Don't beat yourself up too much. It is supposed to be fun for you and the dog both, ya know? Spend more time thinking about what the sheep are doing and less about what the dog is doing. AM told me the goal is 90% concentration on the sheep, 10% on the dog. Just catch the dog out of the corner of your eye before he gets things out of whack and is working against what you're concentrating on! You can do it!

LOL!! too funnyI started with no sheep as well. You are one up on me because my dog at the time was crap. Scott tells me your dog is perfect for you. Moments of brilliance is all you need to look for and remember. Anytime you need another Canadian vacation just let me know would love to meet you.

Hang in there! It can be done! I don't have sheep either, and am muddling along in Open for the first time. Its a struggle... but you can do it.

Best piece of advice I've ever gotten (and it was from Scott): Always know your dog's mind, and what his next step is going to be. He had me study my dog's movements and natural inclinations as part of every work. I learned a LOT about what she is capable of, where she needs help, etc. I spent 5-10 minutes of each work setting her on a drive and just studying what she would do based on the sheep (barring errors that require handling to avoid poor training!) . Its helped immensely.

About Me & the Dogs...

I live in Erie, Colorado, and—despite the clear lack of sheep in my suburban backyard—I spend much of my free time working my border collies on stock. Sophie is the dog I started this journey with—she is a border collie x aussie (x maybe chihuahua, at least according to the canine genetics folks) who, as a misbehaving adolescent brought me to my first glimpse of the stockdog world. I didn't learn very much with her, but our experience piqued my curiosity about working stockdogs. I then got Taz to learn how to work with dogs and stock for real. I started Taz myself and have learned a lot about what not to do along the way! Taz spent a few months in Canada last winter with Scott Glen, who fixed some of the mistakes I made training him—I am really enjoying working Taz again and seeing what we can do together. Craig is my oldest border collie, given to me a few years ago to help me improve my handling skills and now retired. Meg is my newest prospect; she's just a pup now, but she's a firecracker and I can't wait to start her. Right now, I trial Taz in pro-novice/open ranch. I am hoping that keeping an online journal of my trials and tribulations will help me work through my training challenges and keep me on track. I am very fortunate to have a few skilled and accomplished folks helping me, and I have no doubt that this blog will be a source of great amusement for them. It's also a fun way to share the pain with others also suffering the anguish and humiliation of trying to figure out how to guide another species to effectively interact with a third species to a standard of skill developed by people living in another country hundreds of years ago . . .

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He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours,faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion.